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We could still have been happy just having each other and the children. She spoke out her thought as if Giorgio sat in the car with her. It was just an illusion. She wept unconsolably.

By Adeola Aderounmu

I have just finished writing the manuscript to my third book. The first and second book l published and sold myself.

The second one THE MADRILENIAN was also launched in Sweden and Nigeria before they went on sales.

I am going to take my time before releasing the new (third) book. This is because l am working on translating it to Swedish to meet the local language demand.

The manuscript needs proof reading and grammar corrections.

The story is set in Italy. It is about a family that has a history of mafia in its bloodlines. It focuses on the generation that gave up the mafia activities and instead became bank robbers.

The family had a history in the construction industry and this helped them to master their acts as bank robbers.

But tragedy struck as one of the mastermind died of cancer and his son has to take over his role in the criminal organisation.

The book is titled A MOTHER’S AGONY because his wife lost him and was helpless in allowing her son take over his role in the organisation.

This book could even be a best-seller for HOLLYWOOD if l get all the professional help in making the adjustments require before publishing.

Here are more quotes from the manuscript:

If there was anything in life that never waited, never stopped for anyone, it would be time. For some people, it went rather too quickly not allowing them to appreciate the beauty of life. For others, time crawled, showing them clearly their weaknesses and pains.

There was nothing she could change now that she knows that the best form of happiness is the one created from the perfect integration of work, play, and time spent with family. She wished they had been contented with what they had.

African women should be proud to wear their natural hairs. They are beautiful just the way they are.

Nollywood Is Failing Africa

By Adeola Aderounmu

A few weeks ago l watched some films on a Nollywood TV channel. My attention was drawn to the appearances of the women in the various films.

The appearances of Nigerian women in Nollywood films are nothing to write home about. It may have been so before l left home in 2002 but definitely not as rampant as it is now. Regardless, the rise of the use of artificial hairs, now rampant in both real life and in the Nigerian movie industry is highly condemnable.

The almost complete disappearance of the African hairstyles in Nollywood films is extremely disturbing. In the movies l’d seen 100% of the women are wearing imported wigs/hairs. No one wore their natural hair.

It seems that our women are not proud of their natural beauties. This scenario is shameful and tasteless. It is actually also disgusting!

The continent of Africa had been suffering from colonial mentality for more than 500 years. When are we going to revert to our originalities? If not now, then when?

We have been lied to that we are inferior. We have been lied to that we have lower intelligence levels. We have been told that our skin is black and bad. We have been looked down upon and we continue to fight around the world that we are equal to or above other races.

We can leave our political calamities for once as the basis of comparison with other places around the world, though that is also a very difficult thing to do. For our political lives in Africa and how politics have been used to separate and destroy us cannot be overlooked. We are first judged by the outcomes of our political decisions and the implications on our socio-economic situations.

However, it becomes also very disturbing and worrying that we don’t seize the opportunities on other platforms we have to show ourselves in good light. By ourselves, we reduce or destroy our dignities. The appearances of the Nigerian women on Nollywood, are an admittance that African women have lesser dignity than other women around the world. The only way to turn this sad situation around is to reverse the trend, let African women look 100% African.

Nollywwod has the opportunity to showcase the beauty of the African woman but all she is showing is copied version of Hollywood women and copied version of some international celebrities that do not depict the true glory and beauty of Africa.

It is not a good development for Nigeria and definitely not for Africa when we replace our cultures, our traditions, our appearances and our dignities with foreign objects. We’ve lost it.

Nollywood in particular need to do a search within and start a campaign to promote Africa to the tune of 100%. Someone is going to ask what the roles of the government is in Nollywood that would make them do this. O well, Africa belong to all of us and we need to look inward and promote our traditional hairstylists and save billions of dollars that we waste annually on importation of disgusting wigs and dead people’s hairs.

There is a lot Nollywood can do for itself if it starts to act as a promoter of culture and custodian of tradition rather than a neocolonial stooge in the heart of Africa. We should promote our hairstyles and help African women and hairstylists travel round the world to showcase our hairstyles.

The onus is not on the women only. It is on all of us and our perception of beauty. Our men should be involved in promoting the glory of Africa too. They also must appear and dress African in our movies.

Viewers and watchers of the African movie industry have a role to play in appreciating our men and women as they do their best to maintain the African culture and tradition. We cannot condemn them by comparing them to foreign Hollywood stars. We are Africans.

It is Africa that should be exporting her tradition and culture because they are pure and golden. In these tradition and culture lie some hidden wealth of Africa that should be tapped just the same way we are imploring government to tap into both the natural and human resources in order to build a better continent to the envy of the world.

A word is enough for the wise. Let us join hands in various ways to promote these ideas and ideals. Africans in the diaspora also have their own roles to play. Keep your hair natural, keep your looks simple. Don’t change who you are because you are abroad. Be recognisable!

Share this view, spread the concept. Let’s win back our continent and our originalities. Every little way counts!

The truth is always a bitter pill. For as long as we continue to lie, pretend, play to the gallery, hope and follow blindly that the unitary system of government will get us somewhere, these outcomes (pain, anguish, sorrow and disappointments) to different degrees will remain our common denominators.

We have not declared an official war in Nigeria but we live in a war situation everyday of our lives.

2017: Yet Another Disappointing Year For Naija

By Adeola Aderounmu

This is my evaluation of 2017.

The year 2017 turned out to be a very devastating one for several millions of Nigerians.

The sad chapters in the annals of this (should-have-been-great) country got longer.

This country Nigeria was destined for greatness as a conglomeration of regions but it had since 1966 remained trapped in a unitary system of government that is useless and nonsensical. Subsequently the country was sapped into poverty and penury by the lucky bastards in form of tyrants and criminal politicians who are not keen on reverting the country back to regional system of government.

In recent years l have written a number of ”end of year” messages through my blog posts. For this year and for the previous ones, these posts were written with my heart filled with rage and anger. I am still extremely disappointed in how the country continues to go deeper in hopelessness.

Already in the year 2007, that was 10 years ago, l wrote an article titled Christmas in Hell. The article chronicled my experience in Nigeria in 2006. One december day that year l drove early to a gas station to queue for fuel. It was my turn after about 5-6 hours of wriggling through the queue.

I will never forget the experience because as l waited in the car, l was crying uncontrollably. I cried for Nigeria. I cried for the suffering and devastation in the land. I cried for all the ignorant people and even the knowledgeable people who together were suffering, celebrating and smiling.

A few hours to that agonising experience, I’d flown into Lagos from Sweden where l could drive to a gas station, fill my car with fuel and pay by credit card and drive away in zero time. Then l came to a country flowing with oil and other uncountable natural resources and l had to queue for more than 5 precious hours of my life. I cried until there were no tears left to shed.

These types of experiences which have sadly become recurrent in Nigeria, even since 1977, showed that Nigeria is one of the worst places to live in the world. We have not declared an official war in Nigeria but we live in a war situation everyday of our lives.

In our country Nigeria, the people have completely lost it. There are no common interests for a national agenda and the political restructuring of the system has not been taken seriously so that prosperity and wellness can be in focus. If we restructure Nigeria today, perhaps 50 years from now the generation of people that would be called Nigerians can be happy and fulfilled.

Unfortunately, the present Nigerian system continues to promote survival of the fittest. The system thrives as if we are in a rat race. The system runs a manual that ensures that people prosper either through some elements of luck or by connections to the largely corrupt and fraudulent elites and politicians. There are rare rewards for excellence and honesty.

The system breeds hatred in the hearts of men and women. The system ensures that there is a struggle between people in such a way that one group of people under the excuse of the slightest provocation would not hesitate to kill or main the other group. It’s still about the survival of the fittest. There are too many examples of people killing one another instead of negotiating and finding a common solutions to problems.

The effects of more nearly 60 years of bad rulership in Nigeria are too numerous to state.

In fact the present government is full of propaganda and cannot see anything wrong with all its failures and shortcomings. It’s that type of government comprising people who do not see beyond their noses. For, ordinary common sense dictates that the bulk always stop at the door of the person who is assumed responsible for the task (done or undone).

Buhari is the Minister of petroleum resources. He is the ruler of Nigeria. Irrespective of his lines of defenses, the shortage of fuel in 2017 means that the government has failed in performing one of his statutory obligations to the citizens of Nigeria.

But Buhari has been here many times before in his life. He was the Minister of Petroleum in 1977 and Nigeria had fuel shortages then. It remains to be seen if this shortage will lead to increase in the price of petrol per liter in Nigeria.

How long can Nigerians continue to tolerate failures and a system of government that seals more than 100m people to a permanent life of poverty and impoverishment? How long will everybody continue to hope and pray that in a system that is malfunctioning, that some divine intervention will be their hope for a happy life?

It’s complete insanity to hope on divine intervention.

Nigeria is not working and drastic measures need to be taken to turn things around. The most evident sign of failure is that one person cannot steer Nigeria. In how many ways do we want some evidence that this is not going to be possible?

Obsanjo failed, Yar Adua failed, Goodluck Jonathan failed and Buhari has already failed. What other signs do we need to know that we must try something else? That we need back regional government.

Just to ensure that l bring this article to an end, my suggestion is for the young people of this country to come together and wrestle their future and the future of their children and unborn grandchildren from the status quo.

You don’t need PDP or APC in 2019. You need to go back to your regions and harness the best brain to move things forward. Nigerian youths need to throw away all their affiliations to PDP and APC. There is no difference between the two parites. The politicians cross party lines annually because of what they will eat and gain. They have no ideologies to bind them. The people can remain slaves in Nigeria for all the politicians care!

There is no future with either the APC or the PDP.

With the numerical advantage on the side of the youth, they need to do something and very quickly too.

2018 will come with new opportunities and new challenges, the young people must unite and wrestle this country from the criminals in power across the country!

By all means and at all cost, the slave traders of Libya must be found, arrested and prosecuted. Justice must prevail or this will happen again.

Traumatized Libya

By Adeola Aderounmu

Libyans are today presenting an image that shows that some of them are the most useless humans on earth in 2017. No other country in the world can compete with Libya as the domain of some of the most complete fools, idiots and silly asses that the wold knows today.

The reason for these qualities are not far fetched.

Some Libyans took advantage of the economic migrants in their domain and sold them as slaves. The internet is awashed with the gruesome images and videos of how Africans are sold as slaves in Libya. It was CNN that probably first reported the news.

It sounded as if Libya is not in Africa. Actually that is one issue that still needs to be addressed. How do North Africans view themselves? I have seen some football matches where North African footballers behave unruly to players and officials from sub-Saharan Africa. I get the impression that they think that they are superior to the rest of us. Foolish thinking!

Libyans are traumatized. They are a people so foolish they killed their former ruler. I am sure they never expected that their lives will be turned upside down as it is today.

How could they be so foolish and ignorant of what was to follow the assassination of their ruler? They stupidly connived with the west and eliminated Gadhaffi.

Since then, their lives have been in turmoil and there has been complate breakdown of law and order.

It is really sad that this is the route that our brothers and sisters from sub-Saharan Africa choose in their quests to reach Europé.

Definitely one cannot exonerate the stupid rulers in sub-Saharan Africa. In general, there is failure of leadership in Africa.

Africans, south of the Equator is a place where men and women ought to be living like Kings, Princes and Queens. This is a part of the world that is blessed with abundant resources and human talents.

Sadly the rulers and politicians in that part of the world are totally crazy. They are the ones who are misruling their people and forcing them to become economic migrants. It is the misrule in sub-Saharan Africa that is serving as the source of the men and women sold as slaves in Libya.

The rulers of sub-Saharan Africa need to borrow themselves some senses and start to rethink how they govern their people. They cannot govern their people and threat them like slaves and expect miracles to happen in Libya or even Europé. They have to stop stealing money at some point and start to think about the people and not themselves!

For now the criminals who sold people as slaves in Libya need to be apprehended and served some very long prison terms. By all means and at all cost, they must be found, arrested and prosecuted. Justice must prevail or this will happen again.

The governments all around Africa must begin to rethink governance and meeting the needs of the people in their individual countries and allowing treaties that ensure that human rights are not violated across borders. Those slave-dealers of Libya must be used as examples of the importance of the laws in Africa and globally.

For all the errors of judgment that led to the elimination of Gadhaffi and the lawlessness that now pervade in Libya, the world must wake up and the world must ask for the rebuilding of Libya. Libyans are traumatized and they are transferring their traumas and aggressions to dark-skinned Africans. They do not have the permission or right to do so. Again, those who have committed these crimes must be made to face the music squarely.

The rest of Libya deserve our sympathy. Together, they are all not feeling fine. The behaviour that emerged amongst them, though criminal, must also be deep rooted through psychological rebuilding. The people of Libya may be crazy. Definitely they are inhuman.

There is grave danger if the method used to oust Mugabe is celebrated. The use of the military to correct political anomaly should not be celebrated or hailed anywhere in the world.

Mugabe: A Wrong Type Of Celebration

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Many observers within and outside Africa seem to have celebrated the overthrown of Mugabe as the president of Zimbabwe after nearly 4 decades in power. Such a perception is a sharp contradiction to what obtained in the 1970s and 1980s when Mugabe was a hero of Zimbabwean independence.

I remember my reaction when Mugabe was voted to power for the 6th time in 2008. Then, he was 84 years and l thought he should be due for retirement so that he could rest and enjoy the rest of his days. At that moment l concluded that bad leaders, no matter how good their intentions may seem, are those who refused to train or mentor followers to take over from them.

In my opinion, Mugabe’s greatest mistake was not nurturing a few young men and women who could move Zimbabwe forward. He was prepared to rule Zimbabwe until his death and that is the only explanation l found for a man who is 93 years and not retired from public service.

No doubt about it, Mugabe overstayed in power. He probably mistook democracy for monarchy. In a democracy, the transfer of power is inevitable. Those who fought alongside Mugabe for the independence of Zimbabwe have reasons to feel insulted when it became apparent that Mugabe was planning to transfer power to his wife.

Some of these people are now politicians albeit old politicians and some remained in the military. They have now ensured that power was taken by force from Mugabe in his old, helpless ag.

When the current power tussle is settled, the handlers of Zimbabwe have a few things to clarify and rectify. For example, the law that gives Mugabe the power to sack the Vice President of the country should be revoked through the legislature. Other repressive laws in the constitution that are capable of converting revolutionary, democratic leaders to tyrants should be abolished.

Zimbabwe and indeed many other countries in Africa need to review the tenures of their politicians. Zimbabwe for example, would probably have grown democratically if there was limitation on the number of times a president can seek for re-election. In countries where the power of incumbency makes it an almost impossible task to change power through credible elections, limited terms of office will be an antidote.

There is grave danger if the method used to oust Mugabe is celebrated. The use of the military to correct political anomaly should not be celebrated or hailed anywhere in the world. It remains a recipe for violence and civil war. It was wrong that the military option was what it took to oust Mugabe or stop his wife from taking over power. The electoral option, that which makes use of credible ballot votes and acceptable results, is always the best method.

The global media therefore need to present a balance report of the situations regardless of its predisposition (love or hate) towards Mugabe. What has happened in Zimbabwe is not just about the person of Mugabe and his hunger for power but also about the welfare and the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe at home and abroad.

The lessons of Zimbabwe should once again opened our eyes to the inadequacies of democracy in certain parts of the world and these lessons should be instrumental to various institutions saddled with the promotion of not just democracy but civil rights of all people globally.

The time is ripe for the ordinary citizens to orchestrate and execute the agenda of both political and economic reforms. They cannot wait. The people must ensure that all those who fail the country pay for their crimes and they must set new agenda for the way forward. Where there is a (good) will, there is a way.

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

By Adeola Aderounmu

I have been writing about Nigeria for quite a while now. A few times, l’d almost given up on Nigeria. Many times, l’d resigned and promised never to write again. It’s too easy to give up because Nigeria is heading no where. It’s easy to give up because you don’t see the impact of what you and others are writing about. It is too easy to give up because when one group of criminals are leaving the government, another group of worse criminals are stepping in.

I know many people living abroad who don’t ever want to hear you discuss about Nigeria again. As far as they are concerned, Nigeria will never, never get better and anyone hoping to change things is just chasing shadows. In fact, l also know many people living in Nigeria who either look at you with indifference or even laugh at you when you think you have some messianic opinion.

My guy, abeg leave story, if you can’t beat them, you join them. Let them dey chop, pray make your own time come. No be today abeg.

With these submissions and resignations, it is obvious that Nigeria is heading no where. The country is hopeless and vandalised. It is overrun by criminals occupying all public institutions. Ordinary citizens of Nigeria at home and abroad have come to terms with the fact that criminals are running the presidency, the senate, the various states and the local councils.

So they pray that as many people and as many families as possible can take turns so that the national cake can go round. These actually are the views of the educated and semi-literates too. Everybody has join the bandwagon that Nigeria is a geographical area whose resources must be plundered turn by turn by locals and foreigners.

Some citizens are so excruciated and excluded from the running of Nigeria that it appears that they don’t even know where they are and which century we live in. Several millions of Nigerians have been booted off the radar of civilisation. The people are so bruised mentally and physically they don’t know how to fight for their rights and freedom. They are so brainwashed and deprived they don’t know how to tear down non-functional governments and oppressions staring at them everyday of their life.

How then do you console a people who never experienced even 12 hours uninterupted electricity in their life time? How do you console a people harbouring certain generations that haven’t experience quality education in their entire life time? How do you console a people who now see education as a waste of time because of the way politicians turn to criminals and just cart away loots everyday? How do you console a generation that worships ill-gotten monies and ostentatious display of wealth.

There is no consolation but pity for the people who have no understanding for the meaning of life and how the rest of the world looks like in 2017. You must pity those who see a normal downpour of rain as a curse as it swallows houses, property and people. You must pity those who don’t know who they voted for in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. They don’t even know who is running the country. A person or a cabal? You must pity a people governed by coconut heads who assemble regularly in London while the country lies in ruin and desolation.

You must pity the largest accumulation of black people on earth with the largest accumulation of tragedies. You have to pity the country that suppresses brilliant minds or simply turn them to criminals at home or heroes abroad.

You must pity the country that was once a rising giant but now a crawling cripple. You must pity the country that was once the hub for the princes and kings of the world but now a footstool for terrorists, separatists and militants.

You have to pity that country and people where murders by heavy stones is the order of the day at the economic capital. If you have some conscience left in you, you must sympathise with the country where brutal killings and rape in the hands of the herdsman is the order of the day on any grassland or arable land. The country is heading no where when the politicians sentence the people to death daily by their actions while they seek solace and comfort in London, Dubai and USA.

You have to pity this generation whose schools are constantly under lock as the majority of criminal politicians and the elites send their children abroad to receive quality education. In how many ways can we recount what is wrong with Nigeria, yet nothing seems to change?

What has changed in the last 2 years is that the administrative capital of Nigeria has moved to London by the man who promised the change now turned charade. He fooled Nigerians and made them pay for his medical bills and the education of his children abroad. What happened to leading by example?

This is a country heading no where. Whatever you read here now has been mentioned more than 30 years ago in writing and in songs. Is Nigeria a country? A place where people capture power and suppress truth and freedom. Is Nigeria a real country when poverty and hopelessness remain the rewards of citizenship. Cry, cry, cry for one of the most tragic sequences of political mismanagement in human history.

Still, Nigeria can go to places. The country can be free. Real change and absolute freedom will depend on the people. When they are ready for freedom, they know what to do. The criminals and politicians or even the cabals if they exist are very few and the people are several millions. They can become organised and in a matter of weeks change their destinies.

All they have to do is have a common goal and declare that enough is enough. When that happens, freedom will come and Nigeria will start to head somewhere. The people must unite and forge an agenda that will once and for all remove the clog from the wheel of progress.

The time is ripe for the ordinary citizens to orchestrate and execute the agenda of both political and economic reforms. They cannot wait. The people must ensure that all those who fail the country pay for their crimes and they must set new agenda for the way forward. Where there is a (good)will, there is a way.